A common construction for an extra high voltage circuit breaker employs an outer housing which may be grounded (a dead tank) which has insulator bushings entering the tank at two spaced locations along its length. One or more modular interrupter assemblies supported in series are then connected between the interior portions of the insulating bushings.
It is common in such high voltage circuit breakers to employ a closing resistor since switching surges may be more severe than lightning overvoltages. Conventional closing resistors consist of a stack of resistor assembly disks or other elements in parallel with each of the interrupter breaks. The resistor contacts close before the interrupter contacts to pre-insert the resistor in the circuit. The main contacts close later to short circuit the closing resistor. The resistor contact is thereafter opened to remove the resistor from the circuit prior to reopening the interrupter contacts. The closing resistor reduces switching surge overvoltages on the line which otherwise might exceed the lightning basic insulation rating of the device.
Closing resistor assemblies are commonly located physically parallel with the interrupter assembly, with the interrupter assembly and the resistor assembly being disposed in their own separate tank. The dual tanks are joined together. With this configuration, to remove the resistor assembly or the interrupter assembly, the tanks must be separated.
Thus, there is a need to provide current path structure between an interrupter assembly and a resistor assembly in a dual tank, dead tank circuit breaker, permitting the resistor assembly or interrupter assembly to be removed without the need to separate the tanks from each other.